Former Ferguson, Mo., City Spokesman Found With Meth: Report

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Police charged a former city spokesman with possession of methamphetamine on Tuesday after a traffic stop.

Jeff Small, also a former on-air reporter in St. Louis, began working for the city in 2014 following the death of Michael Brown, KPLR-TV reports. On Jan. 6, Small was pulled over by cops for a broken headlight, according to court documents. The officer then learned that Small had “active warrants in other jurisdictions,” according to KPLR-TV, and took the 44-year-old into custody.

While patting down Small, the cop also found a plastic bag containing two glass pipes and a crystal substance that lab results would later show to be meth, according to authorities.

Advertisement

That wasn’t all the police found.

According to KPLR-TV, police found a fanny pack belonging to Small that contained “a plastic container, five plastic bags with suspected drug residue inside, dryer sheets, metal wiring and an eyeglass case containing two pipes ... with suspected drug residue.”

Advertisement

A Ferguson city spokesperson told the TV outlet that Small, who was charged by prosecutors Tuesday with possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, no longer works for the city.

The city of Ferguson captured the national spotlight after the 2014 killing of Brown by then-city Police Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson was never indicted in Brown’s death and, in addition, was cleared of civil rights violations by the Justice Department in 2015.

Advertisement

Brown’s death—as well as Wilson’s lack of punishment—caused widespread protests in the city and throughout the country.

In 2015 the DOJ issued a scathing report about Ferguson’s policing and court practices. Among the findings: Ferguson’s policing practices were driven by revenue rather than public safety concerns; black residents accounted for 93 percent of arrests (while being 67 percent of the city’s population); and a disproportionate number of arrests, tickets and use of force stemmed from unlawful bias.

Advertisement

The report also faulted the Ferguson Police Department for inflaming the protests in the city with its overly aggressive tactics.

Last year, Ferguson opted to re-elect its white incumbent mayor, James Knowles, in its first mayoral election since Brown’s death.

Advertisement

Read more at KPLR-TV.